The signs look good, if a bit bland and functional. Eventually, it was decided to standardise on a colour which became known as Rail Blue. It's a given that there will be brands underneath GBR - if there weren't, it would make travelling pretty complicated. Messages: 1,398. A nod to the past in the liveries would be nice like with the modern GWR too. How about that but the double arrow in red? And again, there may be scope to take back control of this. This mock-up was shown in an orange and grey livery, which, however, never appeared on rolling stock in service. Last week Doug Beattie, the newly-installed leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, hit out at Boris Johnson. the report stated that there would be some update to the double arrow, though not what that update would be. On the other hand Avanti's branding is awful - there is no "Italian flair" in it at all. Budgets and delivery will be held at the local level as well as at the national level. It does because it's public perception. Withdrawn 01001 is just visible at the rear. Blue Pullman in grey and blue livery arriving at Bristol Temple Meads in 1973. It might have the operator identified in a small way too. And it that light it is intriguing that Ministers have. We will probably get something like this Shorthand and in general parlance yes, but Great British Railways will be a brand that the DfT will want to get out there sooner rather than later, even if it is just a vinyl on top of existing TOC names. During 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, all passenger train operating companies (TOCs) entered into Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements with the UK and Scottish Governments. [2] It was a dark, greyish blue tone which hid the effects of dirt well. Agree, having at least 'intercity', 'regional' and 'metro' would be good. But theres no particular reason this should be. Corridor coaching stock was originally trialled in LNWR coach plum and off-white (nicknamed Plum and Spilt Milk) before Crimson (carmine red) and Cream livery (nicknamed Blood and Custard) was adopted across the network; non-corridor stock was painted plain Crimson. Boris Johnson has announced that Britain is to have a new public rail operator, Great British Railways (GBR), in the biggest shake-up of the country's trains since privatisation a quarter. If they're bothered about 'red white and blue" then just stick the double arrow in a white background and give it a blue border. For example, GBR will apparently inherit from Network Rail the duty to run and plan the network, as well as providing online tickets, information and compensation for passengers nationwide. This opens up the possibility of a national ticketing app, with the Great British Railways branding. Quick reference Livery Guide for Nameplates and transfers available in 4mm/00 scale. Compared to the superb branding packages of TfW and ScotRail, it does not say "come use the railway . Like the Thameslink 700 "can't be bothered" livery. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. However, these bodies will be required to coordinate with GBR to deliver a single national rail network, including one website and app, as well as following national branding and passenger standards. On the face of it, this is primarily a reorganisation of the franchise system in England control over passenger franchises in Scotland and Wales is, alas, devolved. Search for a trade mark - Intellectual Property Office (ipo.gov.uk), https://twitter.com/MrTimDunn/status/912009372292780033, Somewhere along the West Anglia Main Line. Finsbury Park. Rail alphabet had the advantage of being clear, legible and was pretty much consistently applied. [13], On 5 February 2022, the Department for Transport launched a public consultation for the location of GBRs headquarters. the handling/liability of pensions etc. I imagine the LNER and GWR branding will be around the longest, as its allready kind of govt created and most in line with DfT standards. Why do you show the double-arrow logo *and* the words "Great British Railways"? It may not display this or other websites correctly. Can you only be professional if every rail person works in the same uniform? It's the name of the island ffs. Yes i like it, very clean and professional looking. Variants where the band was blue (outer suburban) or green (inner suburban) instead of orange were planned, but never implemented.[15]. | Page 23 | RailUK Forums We're pleased to announce the launch of our new booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk, which helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchased. The rail system is a public service not an art gallery. This error in colour identification comes from an article and question published in a Model Railway Magazine in the 1950s, where the responding editor made the error, and it has frequently been repeated since then. English regions, Scotland, and Wales will have their own variants, but these will still emphasise the national nature of GBR. This idea often seems to pop its head up. People are understandably sceptical about the frequent rebranding . It will become a single familiar brand with a bold new vision for passengers - of punctual services, simpler tickets. Western. In many ways having a 'Railway System' logo (the double arrow) for stations/journey planners but a different logo so people know the train is a 'big' intercity train or a 'small' stopping train is very helpful. From 1974, some DMU sets, after being refurbished, were painted white with a wide blue band under the windows and full yellow ends. Class 14s D9537 (in desert sand livery) and D9539 prepare a double-head a train on the Ribble Steam Railway. In which case, why do car manufacturers put effort (and substantial amounts of money!) I reckon a simple logo like the one youve depicted will be what we see. Dedicated station management teams will be created within regional divisions of GBR to manage stations and land. This competition aimed to identify a place with a rich railway heritage, strong links to the national network and significant public support, while creating a great opportunity to promote the location as the proud home for the start of a new era in Britains railways. [7], Under Network Rail, all stations are formally in public hands since 2014, but only 20 (mainly large termini and central stations) are managed directly by it. Because for my money blue & grey is not the "same basic livery" as Swallow, neither is NSEs toothpaste anything like the red and cream worn in the 50s. 19th September, 2019. The livery comprised brown upper panels with a colour described variously as "biscuit" or "fawn" along the lower panels and separated by a broad orange band. Please can you explain the advantage of such a nationwide livery? It will replace Network Rail as the operator of rail infrastructure across all of Great Britain (excluding some Valley Lines in Wales and some Merseyrail lines). Heh. I don't think there would ever be multiple logos for Great British Railways as you've alluded to - it would make it complicated for the end passenger. Introduced originally by the Great Western Railway, the Travelling Post Office would set out from London in the dead of night and deliver . Several Class 31 locomotives received white waist stripes, these being Home Forums They are an intercity operator. Great Britain's railway system was built by private companies, but it was nationalised by the Transport Act 1947 and was run from then onwards by British Railways (which traded as British Rail from 1965) until privatisation, which was begun in 1994 and completed in 1997. Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread . JavaScript is disabled. Given that the vast majority of passengers dont really care what the brand is, do GBR really need a brand? I'm inclined to disagree. Infrastructure, passenger, and freight services were separated at that time. [9][10] Several other Class 47 locomotives, some Class 31s, and even some DMU cabs, were subsequently also painted by Stratford with grey roofs, the variation becoming something of a trademark for the depot. I tried going with the National Rail icon in the right hand side, but it was too small and nobody would notice it. In terms of changing the background colour - I was going to go with a navy blue, but then it wouldn't integrate with any part of the design system I had in my head, so I opted not to. I think there would be huge advantages of a standard livery and branding across the Britain, in saving money and presenting a unified product to the customer. Home Forums This livery was known as Large Logo livery as each side of the locomotive was dominated by a full body height BR double arrow symbol, and had the loco number prominently displayed at twice the previous size. I'm not aware - what are TfW doing? The great livery might only look good on certain trains, while on others it looks rubbish. In the days of signs being hand painted/stencilled on enamel I would agree, but it is so much easier to make stuff look good these days that there is really no excuse for this sort of thing. From July 1956 the Southern Region began using a 'coaching stock' green that was somewhat darker than the malachite green colour of the old Southern Railway and this extended to former Southern vehicles as well as Mk1 stock. The colour often appears inaccurately in photographs, generally appearing brighter and bluer than the real colour. In 1977 two Class 47 locomotives, 47163 and 47164, were painted by Stratford TMD with silver roofs and other decorations including a full body height Union Flag on each side, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee. The Class 309 units worked between Liverpool Street and Clacton, occasionally also to Ipswich and Norwich and later upon transfer saw the livery briefly appear around Manchester and Birmingham. If you run across land borders you're going to get it. For Station signage that is supposed to be functional and informative above all else, I don't see too much wrong with this. Famous in York and up and down the East Coast Main Line, LNER could soon be consigned to history - again, YorkMix understands. We use cookies. RM 2A03J14 - Sittingbourne, Kent, UK. Recognising this, the Plan for Rail recommended the development of a 30-year strategy to determine how best the railways can support Britain in the future. GBR will be modelled on the operations of Transport for London, which contracts services on systems such as London Overground. Then why was the old version called British Railways, not Great British Railways, and why the change now for the new version if British Railways worked . [8][9], A fortnight before the WilliamsShapps Plan for Rail was unveiled, the Department for Transport gave notice of a 6.5million contract for Deloitte up to February 2023 as its "strategic change delivery partner: rail reform programme". Free delivery for many products! The standard livery for most British Railways steam locomotives was black, often with a thin red, cream and grey "lining" (trim), while express passenger locomotives were not painted "Brunswick Green" (Which was the former colour of the Great Western Railway) as is often stated, but were painted in British Standards: BS224 "Deep Bronze Green" also known as "Land Rover Deep Bronze Green LR001" with orange and black lining. Plus what is one persons opinion of a great livery will be different to the next. Railfreight livery, a colour scheme specifically for freight locomotives, was unveiled when Class 58 58001 drove through a plastic screen at Doncaster Works on 9 December 1982. It'll be operated quite differently. Press J to jump to the feed. The pleasure's all mine. Oct 22, 2021 All that remains, is to remember the man who made the Journey possible; the greatest engineer of all time and the architect who built modern Britain - Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The BR that believed in having multiple liveries and brands? It'll be operated quite differently. It would appear that were going to be waiting a while even for the new logo, and that given the recent nature of the franchise liveries, that new liveries are a very long way off. The anniversary of the Battle of Hastings which took place in 1066 was also used in publicity for the line. You are using an out of date browser. Privacy Noticeand Website Accessibility. Great British Railways: Livery, branding and appearance? A throwback to the 70s and 80s can sometimes work, but not often, but I think. "Great" means "large", not "very good". Today I would like to make a rather general suggestion rather than something specific. Copyright 2023 Great British Railways Transition Team. "Image of No.47163 with Silver Jubilee Union Jack", History of Blood and Custard (Crimson Lake & Cream) Livery, Information on Freight Locomotive Liveries & logos, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Rail_corporate_liveries&oldid=1136093401, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2014, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Class 35 'Hymek' D7017 restored to 1960's green & lime livery. True. Particularly if they are just vinyls on white painted trains. It may not display this or other websites correctly. [11][12], The location for GBR's headquarters is currently being determined. The infrastructure was privately owned and operated by Railtrack from 1994 to 2002, when it was renationalised and transferred to Network Rail. Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; And although BR did changes, it was still the same basic livery really. You are using an out of date browser. 3,609. thomalex said: One of the big ones is an end to endless rebranding of trains when the operator changes with various bit of old livery hanging about for a long time, never mind the cost and waste involved. However many people were not happy with the loss of the traditional "historic" regional colour schemes as used by the former private companies. In 1964, as part of a plan to develop a new corporate image for British Railways, a number of experiments were tried; Discussions on the livery for British Railways coaching stock in 1948 eventually settled on a network-wide two-tone livery of crimson and cream for corridor coaches, with all-over crimson being used for local, non-corridor stock. BR's first standard locomotive liveries, adopted from 1949 onwards. Class 01 01002 inside Holyhead Breakwater shed in early black livery. Unfortunately, there is little sign that Beattie actually intends to do anything differently, in this regard at least, to the Democratic Unionists he hopes to supplant. I don't think the red understripe would appear though, and there will still be calls from TfGM, WYCA TfWM, TfW, etc. Within a period of 10 years, HSTs had three different liveries. InterCity (or, in the earliest days, the hyphenated Inter-City) was introduced by British Rail in 1966 as a brand-name for its long-haul express passenger services (see British Rail brand names for a full history).. RM CN0PKR - Britania 70000 in British Railways Livery at West Somerset Railway, Minehead, UK RM C1N4A7 - Totnes Littlehempston Station with Goods Vehicle in authentic 'British Railways' Livery, Totnes, Devon, England, United Kingdom RM ER5JCR - 46138 Royal Scot Class Steam Locomotive - British Railways L Still makes me cringe everytime I see/read 'Great' in front of anything British since this mob got in. British Railways coaches in the crimson and cream livery used from 1949 Discussions on the livery for British Railways coaching stock in 1948 eventually settled on a network-wide two-tone livery of crimson and cream for corridor coaches, with all-over crimson being used for local, non-corridor stock. I still think" Great British Railways" will be mostly likely be termed GBR, most of the time. Instead, I just added an icon next to the full text and removed it from the main station name. Here are his exact words: Hes concerned with the English vote. All other brands (SE, Southern, Thameslink, SWR, GWR, TfW, Merseyrail, Overground, Crossrail, GA, c2c, Scotrail) remain as they are. Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; Im unsure about the livery as such, but if Great British Railways is taken forward, Id expect GBR to feature. But such an approach offers a bleak long-term outlook for the UK. Find out more Contact us Freedom of Information Jobs at GBRTT Media Sign up for GBRTT News Privacy and GDPR Terms and conditions [7]. The concession contract system will be the long-term replacement for the previous system of passenger rail franchising run by the Department for Transport, which became unsustainable early in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our railways play a fundamental role in supporting the economic, environmental and social achievements of the country. Here is some variants of my original 'swallow inspired' design. I agree I think the NR logo in the circle looks better, but GBR is such a mouthful - its just latent fear of the British Rail brand. JavaScript is disabled. Something timeless. Judging from the signage and station painting they will choose something somewhere between boring and ugly, and we will be stuck with it everywhere, for ages. It highlighted different ways in which Westminster could invest in Britains strategic transport network to better-integrate the nation. Multiple units were also generally green, although this tended to be a lighter and bluer shade compared to the colour used on steam and diesel locomotives. And the more I see RA2 and its symbols, the more clumsy it looks. Question for the designers. The distinctive angular shape of the HST power cars did not lend itself to applying yellow on the leading face, so the yellow was wrapped around and extended along the side of each power car, although the coaches retained the usual Rail Blue coaching stock livery. Introduced in 1965, and also known as "Monastral Blue", the colour was defined by British Rail standards BR28/6001 (Airless spray finish) and BR28/5321 (Brush finish). Just like when a new TOC has taken on a franchise, the old TOC name gets removed and the new TOC name gets badged in top, like a big rectangular sticker. The 25 kV electric locomotives were painted from new in a striking shade of bright blue which was known as "Electric Blue". The old Northern signs worked well, but only Metro/WYCA really got behind the co-branding opportunities, that I saw. One thing that might work, though, would be to drop the full text from the red band and just have a subtle double arrow on the right hand side in that. It still has to look good decades from now. So even if that doesn't become the actual 'GBR' logo it will likely see some use on stations and maybe trains. I have heard that the BR double arrows will remain in use due to the fact that in the UK everyone recognises it as the 'train station' symbol. Correct. At present, train operators get to decorate their rolling stock in their own colours. BRs own history says otherwise. The whole GBR thing is complicated as you have ScotRail and TfW already as separate brands that won't change, yet using "Rail England" or whatever is going to provoke outrage where services run by "English" operators go into Scotland and Wales (which rather ignores the same the other way round!). I can sort of understand lumping Moorgate services in with London Overground, but LNER to Kings Lynn has been suggested many times without any compelling reason as to why, beyond "something something intercity standard. It looks like BR. The WilliamsShapps plan recommended that there will be a single, unifying brand for railways, and it is expected that this will be a gradual rebranding over time. Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread . I personally like this Lion logo posted by Tim Dunn on twitter a few years ago, Not at all. In October 2021, the Secretary of State for Transport announced a competition to find a location for the headquarters of Great British Railways outside of London. Great British Railways marks a new era in the history of our railways. And it that light it is intriguing that Ministers have decided to take a step back towards a national rail network with the launch of Great British Railways (GBR). [14] After this date, the passenger versions of Class 37 and 47, as well as Class 50, were routinely outshopped in this livery. Then why was the old version called British Railways, not Great British Railways, and why the change now for the new version if British Railways worked? (60163 still carries this livery in 2018) Black. The colours were chosen to be different from those of any of the "Big Four" pre-nationalisation railway companies while retaining a traditional aspect. The government has promised to base the organisation outside London to promote economic growth and skills in a region beyond the capital. But the point is that effort has gone into developing a brand and what it stands for, it isn't just harking back to the awful 1970s, a time people seem to be seeing with a large pair of rose tinted spectacles. Job done. Not the terms I would have used but I see where you might get that impression. Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; Heh. It's only as complicated as you want it to be. It does affect other devolved rail operators, including ScotRail, Transport for Wales, London Overground, Elizabeth line (Crossrail), and Merseyrail, as well as the combined authorities that oversee other local railway networks in England. GBR will own all stations and most infrastructure in Great Britain. Home Forums If Scotland leaves the UK it must become British Rail as Britain is defined as just England & Wales! Great Northern split, with the Moorgate services becoming part of the London Overground brand and the Kings Lynn route becoming part of the LNER brand. Then theres the question of livery. [17] This livery is also often nicknamed 'toothpaste livery' by rail enthusiasts due to the multicoloured stripes resembling striped toothpaste. Beattie acknowledges how Ulsters separate unionist parties weaken the Union. Goodbye. Something will need to be kept open for Open Access Operators to be distinguished. Not even all yellow fronted anymore. Incorrect: Britain and Great Britain are synonymous, referring to either the largest island of the British Isles (in a geographical context) or the countries of England, Scotland and Wales (in a political context). Official Description. For this new venture a new livery - a paler shade of blue than Rail Blue, with three stripes of white, red and grey - was created with Class 47 No.47573 The London Standard painted in the new livery specifically for the launch ceremony. This page was last edited on 28 January 2023, at 18:28. Another Class 52, No.D1015 Western Champion was delivered in another, darker yellow/brown colour described as 'Golden Ochre', though somewhat different from that applied to D5579. Theres no vote in Northern Ireland for him or his Conservative party so he doesnt care, hes hands off..